"Rockdale, my hometown, is Texas' heart and significant part of its soul," George Sessions Perry wrote in his book, Texas: A World Unto Itself. Perry wrote with lifelong affection about his hometown, first as a novelist and later as a magazine journalist. He describes the pioneers of Rockdale as typical of restless Southerners who hitched their wagons and moved to Texas after the Civil War. . . . Clay Coppedge . . .
Friday, October 29, 2010
1899 :: A Very Sad Accident
Dallas Morning News
Dallas, Texas
Monday, October 30, 1899, page 4.
Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex., 29 Oct – A very sad accident occurred about three miles north of Rockdale late yesterday [Saturday] afternoon in which Mrs. W.P. Henry, a lady about 60 years old lost her life. While driving home from her son’s her horse became frightened, ran away and smashed the buggy into kindling wood and when found Mrs. Henry was dead. It is supposed she was killed instantly. She leaves a husband, a large family of children and many friends to mourn her untimely death.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Trucks Built To Carry Mail
The Dallas Morning News
October 27, 1950
Special to The News
Rockdale, Texas, Oct. 26. -- Trucks fitted like railway post office cars and costing $18,000 each will begin serving two routes from Waco, Rep. W.R. Poage announced Thursday.
Poage said one route will serve Chilton, Lott, Rosebud, Burlington, Ben Arnold, Cameron, Rockdale, Giddings, LaGrange, Schulenberg, Hallettsville and Yoakum.
The other will serve McGregor, Oglesby, Gatesville, Jonesboro, Hamilton, Hico, Dublin, Gorman, Carbon and Eastland.
Three of the $18,000 vehicles will be stationed at Waco, two will be in daily service and one in reserve. Vehicles in service will be manned by a driver and a postal clerk.
The services are designated by the Post Office Department as highway post office routes. They will replace discontinued railway post office services.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Milam County Ex-Confederates
The Galveston Daily News, (Houston, TX)
Tuesday, October 14, 1890; Issue 168; col D.
Ex-Confederates
The Old Soldiers of Milam County Organize —
A Call for State Organization
Cameron, Tex. Oct. 13. -- The ex-confederate soldiers of Milam county effected permanent organization here to-day. Over 400 names were enrolled. By invitation, Judge X.B. Saunders of Belton delivered an address, which was greeted with cheers.
The following resolutions were adopted and proper provision in the charter and constitution made to carry the objects to success:
Resolved, that it is the sense of this association that the ex-confederate soldiers residing in Texas should effect an old soldiers' state organization, the same to be composed of camps or associations of the several counties of the state, and we therefore call upon every camp or county ex-confederate association in Texas to enlist as a regiment in this association, that the ex-confederates of Texas may possess the power to move as a disciplined army toward the accomplishment of the task of caring for those of us who are needy; of providing aid to the indigent widows and orphans of the confederate dead; of preserving and maintaining the sentiment and fraternity born of a common affection for a common cause, and the hardships and dangers shared in the march, the bivouac and the battlefield, and of making an authentic history of the war between the states, that we may transmit to posterity the causes which stripped our allegiance and affection from the flag of the union and intertwined it with the destiny o the flag of the stars and bars.
The following resolution, directed against the histories now taught in the schools of the county, passed:
Resolved, that a committee be appointed whose duty it shall be to guard the historical literature taught in our schools against all encroachments calculated to misrepresent the part taken by the confederate government in defense of the rights of the people.
All county associations of ex-confederates in the state are requested to correspond with N.H. Tracy, Rockdale, Tex., with the view of effecting a state organization.
Tuesday, October 14, 1890; Issue 168; col D.
Ex-Confederates
The Old Soldiers of Milam County Organize —
A Call for State Organization
Cameron, Tex. Oct. 13. -- The ex-confederate soldiers of Milam county effected permanent organization here to-day. Over 400 names were enrolled. By invitation, Judge X.B. Saunders of Belton delivered an address, which was greeted with cheers.
The following resolutions were adopted and proper provision in the charter and constitution made to carry the objects to success:
Resolved, that it is the sense of this association that the ex-confederate soldiers residing in Texas should effect an old soldiers' state organization, the same to be composed of camps or associations of the several counties of the state, and we therefore call upon every camp or county ex-confederate association in Texas to enlist as a regiment in this association, that the ex-confederates of Texas may possess the power to move as a disciplined army toward the accomplishment of the task of caring for those of us who are needy; of providing aid to the indigent widows and orphans of the confederate dead; of preserving and maintaining the sentiment and fraternity born of a common affection for a common cause, and the hardships and dangers shared in the march, the bivouac and the battlefield, and of making an authentic history of the war between the states, that we may transmit to posterity the causes which stripped our allegiance and affection from the flag of the union and intertwined it with the destiny o the flag of the stars and bars.
The following resolution, directed against the histories now taught in the schools of the county, passed:
Resolved, that a committee be appointed whose duty it shall be to guard the historical literature taught in our schools against all encroachments calculated to misrepresent the part taken by the confederate government in defense of the rights of the people.
All county associations of ex-confederates in the state are requested to correspond with N.H. Tracy, Rockdale, Tex., with the view of effecting a state organization.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
1951 :: Old Grocery Firm Makes Last Stand
Special to The News
Rockdale, Texas, Oct. 12. -- After a life of fifty years the Noack Grocery Company will operate for the last time Saturday.
The business was purchased this week by T.A. and M.D. Weems, owners of Howell's Grocery and Market.
The Weems brothers will move their store to the new location when remodeling of the building has been completed.
The Noack Grocery Company was started by the late Andrew Noack, who came to America at age of nine. He came to Rockdale in 1899 on horseback from Winchester with but 50¢ in his pocket. He soon found work, and by thrift and good management within a short time opened a bottling works. The next year he opened a small grocery store with $99 capital.
The business later was operated by a son, Eddie Noack, and a son-in-law, H.L. Fieseler, who sold to the Weems brothers.
Both Fieseler and Noack have farm interest and cattle and will operate these and other interests individually.
October 13, 1951
Sunday, October 10, 2010
1888 :: Rockdale in The News
The Galveston Daily News. Thursday, October 10, 1888. A LIVE TEXAS TOWN. ROCKDALE SITUATED IN THE SOUTHERN PORTION OF MILAM COUNTY. Its Trade and Business Men, Enterprises, School, Churches and Societies -- The Rich Country Around the City -- Statistics and Future Prospects.
ROCKDALE, Tex., October 9 [1888]. -- TO THE NEWS: Having recently observed in the columns of THE NEWS an article on Cameron and Milam county, in which the writer seems to have ignored Rockdale, I have concluded to furnish your readers with a brief sketch of this town.
Rockdale is a city of over 2000 inhabitants, situated on the International and Great Northern railway, in the southern part of Milam county, in one of the best producing sections of the state. The sandy loam in the immediate vicinity of the town is of exceeding fertility, while the rich black lands a few miles to the northwest are admitted as being among the finest farming lands on this continent.
The town was laid out in 1874, when it was the termination of the International and Great Northern railway. After the extension of the road beyond this point, the country surrounding Rockdale began to settle up with small farmers and the town began its growth, which has been steadily progressing, without the spasmodic impetus of a boom, until it was reached its present population.
The trade of Rockdale is extensive; from 10,000 to 13,000 bales of cotton are shipped from this point annually. Its total trade, embracing merchandise sales, lumber sales, exportation of cotton, etc., amounts to $1,250,000 yearly.
The enterprise and zeal of the citizens in the
CAUSE OF EDUCATION
is evidenced by an architectural building of brick, two stories high, at a cost of $10,000, which is an ornament to the town. Its capacity is sufficient for the present use. A public school, under the management of Prof. J.W. Clark, with 225 pupils in regular attendance, is kept in operation in this magnificent structure nine months in the year as a free school, paid for out of the state school fund and a small tax, self-imposed, upon the citizens of the town.
The streets of Rockdale are of extra width, the two principal ones being 100 feet wide. The business houses are generally 30 feet by 125 feet back, and are calculated to hold immense stocks of goods. In fact, the merchants of Rockdale carry larger stocks than those of any other town of its size in the state, the principal of whom, Messrs. Scarborough & Hicks, merchandise and groceries, an immense stock; B. Loewenstein & Bros., I. Baum, Isaacs & Lockett and Solon Joynes, manufacturers' agent for all kinds of machinery.
R.H. Ames has one of the best appointed gins in the county, turning out twenty-four bales of cotton per day.
The citizens of Rockdale have not lost sight of those moral and religious principles that ought to actuate a civilized and christian people. They
HAVE FIVE CHURCHES,
in which they weekly bend their knees in devout prayer to the giver of every good and perfect gift, to-wit: Methodist, Presbyterian, Old School and Cumberland, Baptist, Episcopal, Catholic and Christian. The several secret orders all represented by their various lodges, I.O.O.F., K. of H. and A.F. and A.M., with others too numerous to mention.
The press is ably represented by the Rockdale Messenger and the Rockdale Reporter, both weeklies.
Manufactories have not been neglected in the progress and building up of the town. There is one cigar factory, two brickyards that turn out a splendid article of red brick, two cotton gins that during the cotton season are run to their full capacity.
The town also affords ample facilities for the presentation of the drama, for the amusement of its good citizens.
The banking house of J.S. Perry & Co. furnish financial facilities for carrying on the trade and commerce of the city and surrounding country -- J.E. Longmoor, manager.
A contract has been made with the Aransas Pass Railroad company on its Waco extension to pass through Rockdale. The town has guaranteed the right of way from the country line on the south to the bank of Little river, twelve miles north of Rockdale, and a cash donation of $12,500, all of which has been secured.
The sandy soil in the vicinity of Rockdale has proved to be well adapted to fruit growing, which is now becoming one of the most important.
INDUSTRIES OF MIDDLE TEXAS.
The apple, peach, plum, pear, apricot and grape succeed well. The present season, with abundance of rain, has developed the fact that apples and pears compare favorably with the same kinds of fruits imported from Arkansas and Missouri in size, and are superior in flavor. As each succeeding year proves prosperous, pomologists [someone who cultivates fruit trees] are enlarging their orchards, and in the near future a canning establishment will be demanded to save the increasing crop.
Five thousand boxes of fruit have been shipped from Rockdale during the present season. Your correspondent is indebted to Mr. Homer Eads, the obliging station agent of the International and Great Northern railway, for data as to shipments from Rockdale: Cotton shipped to September 28, 4090 bales of this season's crop. Receipts for shipment of freight for August amounted to $8975.85. Tickets sold, $350.90. Rockdale ships from 20 to 35 cars of cotton seed each season, besides large quantities of corn, hides. etc.
Two coal mines have been opened three and three and a half miles each of Rockdale, near the International and Great Northern line of road, which are likely to prove valuable, since its quality compares well with Indian Nation coal. The mines are not yet fully developed, since only about fifty carloads have been shipped per year.
The International and Great Northern company is well prepared to handle the immense trade of Rockdale. There is a new and neat passenger depot, large freight depot, cotton warehouse and plenty of platform room, stock pens, etc.
Another important enterprise in which the leading citizens are interested is the
BUSINESS MEN'S ASSOCIATION.
The object of this association is to promote trade and increase the business of Rockdale. About fifty of the leading citizens of the town compose the combine. The association has its constitution and bylaws and regular order of business, and is sure of success in effecting the object of their organization. The association has its own hall, a find building.
The town is regularly incorporated, with W.R. Kennard, M.D., mayor.
The writer concludes that Rockdale, by reason of its natural advantages of location, its surrounding rich, fertile and productive lands; its facilities for railroad transportation, the industry and enterprise of its people, the high tone of business integrity of its leading citizens, the moral and religious character of its inhabitants; render it one of the most desirable towns in Texas.
Your representative can not close this brief sketch of Rockdale without acknowledging in grateful terms the kindness extended by Colonel E.M. Scarbrough, R.H. Hicks and B. Loewenstein, all prominent business men, and also Colonel N.H. Tracy, late of the Denver deep water convention, who is a leading legal light of the Milam county bar. Also to J.E. Longmoor, the efficient representative of THE NEWS at Rockdale, and to Rev. W.E. Copeland, who is extensively engaged in fruit culture.
TRAVELER.
Transcribed & shared here by V. Everhart
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